Living Doll
Melbourne 55-footer Living Doll, launched 10 months ago by Michael Hiatt and sailing for the Royal Yacht Club of Victoria, has finished top scoring boat in IRC grand prix division 1 at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week.
Living Doll’s mostly amateur 16 man crew, with an average age of 41, squeezed the last out of the boat for the final Molle Islands race. They polished off the series with a second in today’s race, owner/skipper Hiatt at the helm of his winning Farr design.
Hiatt’s victory comes off the back of his title win last week at the Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week and gives him the trifecta after he took out the IRC crown at Skandia Geelong Week in January.
“The back guard did a great job getting us in the right place at the right time,” said Hiatt today. “We went out yesterday to do well in the windward/leewards as those three races can catapult you forward,” added Hiatt, who scored a first, second and third yesterday and a second today to cement victory.
Saturday 5th September 2009 Opening Day – 125th Sailing Season
Celebrating 125 years of sailing in Brisbane, the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron on Saturday 5th September will open for the 2009/10 Sailing Season.
With a rich history in Sailing achievements the Squadron boasts Olympic representation since 1956, with numerous major event winners, National and World Champions as well as starting Major Yacht races locally our 125th year of Sailing promises to be one of our strongest and most successful hosting Sail Brisbane and the upcoming Contender World Championships.
Steeped in Traditions, both new and old… a regular highlight for the Squadron continues with a blessing of the fleet and the opening of the season performed by Commander Roger Priest RANR.
Four Australian Sailing Development Squad crews are in the final stage of preparation for the compasscard Australian Women’s Match Racing Championship, with racing set to begin on Monday 31 August on Sydney Harbour.
The 12 Women’s Match Racing ASDS members have just returned from Europe where their victories included the Women’s Match Racing World Championship, Swedish Match Cup and ISAF Sailing World Cup round in Kiel, Germany.
The compasscard Australian Women’s Match Racing Championship will take place in Elliott 6’s, which which are the boat of choice for the debut of Women’s Match Racing at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Belcher and Page
The Australian Sailing Team crews of Elise Rechichi and Tessa Parkinson , and Mathew Belcher and Malcolm Page remain in the top ten at the 470 World Championship in Rungsted, Denmark, after five days of racing.
Rechichi and Parkinson hold down fifth position after a 12th and sixth in Thursday’s two races. Lisa Westerhof and Lobke Berkhout of the Netherlands are the runaway regatta leaders and currently have a 14 point lead over second position.
Three years ago Townsville Cruising Yacht Club (TCYC) sailors coming back from the two largest sailing events in Queensland, the twin pillars of Airlie Beach Race Week and Hamilton Island Race Week decided that sheltered waters around Cleveland Bay and Magnetic Island would be the perfect setting for another Australian winter season regatta.
But those two events had between them more than forty years of winter sailing tradition and it was a bold step to try and start yet another North Queensland sailing event at the same time of year.
With strong support from naming rights sponsor Sunferries, Townsville City Council, Queensland Events and other local sponsors, the dream has become a reality.
Read more…
Today the Audi Hamilton Island Race Week fleet of 194 split, the Performance Racing divisions enjoying some round the cans action on the eastern course, the Cruising Divisions setting off at a leisurely pace from Dent Passage for their 12 nautical mile pursuit race and the IRC and Passage Divisions racing a stunning shortened course to Baynham Island in what was the best breeze of the week.
“It was nice to have some consistent breeze” said today’s IRC grand prix division 1 winner Graeme Wood, owner of the JV52 Wot Now which is being helmed by Julian Freeman. Wot Now beat overall series leader Living Doll, Michael Hiatt’s Victorian Farr 55, by a minute on corrected time.
Alan Brierty’s RP63 Limit was the only big boat to figure in today’s podium finishes, claiming third over the line and third on corrected time. Their sense of humour was also on display, a Limit crewman offering to re-lay the pin mark for the race committee, a reference to Monday’s tangle up.
Elise Rechichi and Tessa Parkinson
Three Australian crews remain in contention for victory at the 2009 470 World Championship in Rungsted, Denmark, with three days of racing remaining.
With the men’s fleet now split into gold, silver and bronze groupings and the women’s fleet into gold and silver the racing stepped up a level and the sailors were also forced to contend with a highly unstable and patchy offshore breeze.
The Australian Sailing Development Sqaud crew of Sam Kivell and Will Ryan has continued their stellar run of form after the first day of finals racing and are currently in fifth place, a fine performance given this is the first time they’ve made the gold fleet at a 470 World Championship.
Tom Slingsby
Going into the final day in 21st position Slingsby fought hard throughout the last two races, with an unfortunate black flag followed by a strong third place seeing him climb to 17th overall.
AUDI Hamilton Island Race Week 2009
Racing for all classes contesting Audi Hamilton Island Race Week has been postponed until tomorrow, Thursday 27 August, when SE/NE winds 10 to 15 knots are forecast to bring relief to the almost 2,000 sailors champing at the bit following three days of light air sailing and effectively two lay days.
A dozen buggy trips to the top of One Tree hill and half a tank of fuel later, regatta director Denis Thompson made the call mid-afternoon to keep the cruising and non-spinnaker divisions ashore, then the IRC and performance racing divisions.
“Everyone understood the decision, no-one wants to race in such light and shifty conditions,” said Thompson. “I’m confident we will get everyone out tomorrow,” he added.
Racing at the 2009 Laser World Championship in Halifax Canada
After two days off the water, firstly due to heavy winds from Hurricane Bill and then because of a lack of wind, the entire fleet was keen to get back into racing and make up for lost time with three races run during the course of the day.
With the 164 competitors split into gold, silver and bronze fleets, reigning Laser World Champion Tom Slingsby, and Australian Sailing Development Squad members Ashley Brunning and James Burman took on the gold fleet on the penultimate day of racing.